Tag: photoshoot

Last week we shared a blog post about our friend, fat activist, writer, media maven and Fatshion Icon Cynara Geissler. We couldn’t fit all the photos and fabulous quotes into one little blog post so without further Adieu, we bring you Part Deux!

Anyone who knows Cynara knows that she has a very distinctive and committed style. She joyfully wears bright colours and amazing accessories to brighten up her outfits and anyone who she encounters throughout her day. Like a ray of fun, fashion sunshine! She is also brilliant and well spoken, natch.

Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Marie – Double Feature

Cynara is all ready for her movie date! She has paired our adorable Marie Double Feature Dress with her own red belt, red hair bow, and red and white classic canvas running shoes. This look is super cute but also comfortable and practical for rushing to get to the theatre in time to watch all those previews. Or a post-movie stroll with her sweetheart!

Olivia – Harvest Bloom

Cynara is wearing that same sweet red belt with our Olivia – Harvest Bloom Dress and here she has added red Mary Jane flats and a kelly green cardigan to pull it all together. Her own brooch and our Cherry Earrings complete this classic look.

Veronica – Blue Raspberry

This vision of turquoise and red is one of our favourite looks Cynara has put together. Veronica Dress – Blue Raspberry is fab on its own but with the contrasting red accessories, it pops with joy! A Cinnamon Hearts Vintage Chiffon Crinoline for fabulous floof is just so perfect for this dress. Here we see Cynara’s own red hair bow, and neck baubles but possibly the best things ever are her lace-up Pom Pom flats! Amazing!!

We hope that you have enjoyed this two-part blog all about Cynara Geissler as much as we have. We always look forward to seeing what Cynara is wearing, almost as much as we love to hear what she has to say!

XOX Cherry Velvet

Cynara is Director of Marketing and Publicity at Arsenal Pulp Press. Her critical writing on fat acceptance, fatshion, feminism, and media has found shelter in various print magazines and around the internet including fatshionista.com, Geez Magazine, and Shameless Magazine. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Milo, Event, subTerrain, and Juice. Follow her on Instagram @cynaragee

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A little while back, we wrote a blog about having the pleasure of shooting with Shelly, a long-time Cherry Velvet Enthusiast and friend of our designer, Diane. She was such a jewel to shoot & speak with that we ended up with so much great material!

Between her fantastic styling of our dresses & her incredibly affirming ideas about body positivity, we couldn’t resist writing one more blog…

…And so we invite you to let us take you on another fashion journey with Shelly…!

As we mentioned previously, probably one of the best parts of shooting with Shelly was her arsenal of accessories at our disposal:

You didn’t hear it from us, but there was more than a little fawning over her sparkly baubles and eye catching heels! But more than her jewelry, we loved the little golden nuggets of positivity that Shelly had to share with us. When asked what body positivity means to her, she most eloquently said:

“Body Positivity is an act of self-love. It is appreciating who and where you are in the moment and not subscribing to society’s conditioning and expectations. We’ve been told for so long that only a certain age and size should get positive attention, but that’s not right at all. After all my own trials and tribulations, I’m very happy with who I am.”

And we’re very happy she is who she is, too! Just look at how much she glows in our Paige – Tiffany Swizzle:

As she slipped on the dress + crinoline, we asked her what she thought of crinolines and she smiled,

“I’ve been wearing crinolines since I was 2! I love them. Nothing makes you feel more instantly feminine.”

We definitely concur!

Shelly never likes looking the same and enjoys how a simple change like pairing different accessories and removing the crinoline freshens up the whole look. As She styled herself, she waxed saucy humour about the versatility of our dresses.

“Women never like repeating themselves, am I right? That goes for when we’re talking and dressing up!”

Take another few chic looks at this chick’s look!

In our last Shelly blog, we mentioned how her fun and whimsical fashion sense made her a perfect choice for these style spotlights. But on top of that, we think she deserves the world…Plus!

Our collective hearts sank when we heard her poignantly talk about her struggles with image issues and eventually overcoming an eating disorder. But ever the optimist, she stands by what she endured and is proud of prevailing through these challenges. These days, she happily embraces her body and confidently loves herself.

It definitely showed as soon as she shimmied into our Kate – Ticker Tape:

“This is fat chick FABULOUS!” she cheekily exclaimed.

She beamed as she told us that her coworkers would often place friendly bets on what kind of Cherry Velvet dress she would come into the office with; our dresses were such a treat for everyone to lay their eyes on!

With the lovely neckline details, a full skirt + crinoline, it’s hard not to agree!

We hope you enjoyed Shelly’s inspiring words and gorgeous styling as much as we did. It is always such a pleasure to learn more about the beautiful souls that make our dresses even more stunning.

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Happy Valentine’s Day! We thought today would be a perfect day to post a recap for the fun little party we held at the beginning of this month! So Pucker Up and have a peek at how Cherry Velvet celebrates a shindig!

The day of the party it looked like we were fixin’ for a storm but we decided to go on with the show, anyway! How could we let all our careful baking & decorating go to waste? We’re cray, that way.

That being said, we were sad to hear so many were unable to make it out in such inclement weather. Someone even ended in a ditch on the way here! Even some of our guests who made it in didn’t escape unscathed; Our dear friend, Danielle, got soaked by a rude car. Thankfully, we had a showroom of dresses for her to wear. 😉

Despite the record-breaking cold weather, we kept it hot in our studio with a Love-themed Munch ‘n Mingle night featuring a photoshoot for anyone who showed up in a Cherry Velvet dress! We were a little worried that the epic snow storm we were in the midst of would put the kibosh on our fun night, but thankfully, one by one, 5 years worth of Cherry Velvet dresses came sashaying through the snow and in front of our photographer.

From live music that had everyone bumpin’, to impromptu complementary hair curlin’ & victory rollin’, there were tons of antics and adorable pics.

We thank all the guests who braved the blizzard and we’re so excited to share these photos with you! If you want to see more photoshoot shots+, head over to our Facebook Page!

We had so many charming and delightful ladies come in, we don’t want to exclude anyone! But we simply couldn’t get over how much energy party girls, Cynara & Dina, are! East Van beauties, through and through.

We even had esteemed Editor-In-Chief, Shannon Svingen-Jones, of FabUplus Magazine come out for a snap or 2. Also a Vancouver girl, we’re so proud of how far FabUplus Magazine has come in such a short time and it’s such a thrill to see Shannon’s hard work being recognized as an amazing new magazine, by the likes of publications like Elle & People Magazine.

What’s a party without music? We are so blessed to know so many talent artists to collaborate with and were lucky enough to have Wichita Trip, fronted by Diane’s good friend & long time Cherry Velvet girl, Barb Wilkins. Any shoppers from Vancouver will recognize her from Bodacious, a lovely shop which used to be on Main Street and was one of the forerunners of the Plus Size community in Vancouver. Wichita Trip provided some peachy keen Rockabilly tunes backed by Barb’s husband, Rupert, with Back up vocals & keyboards by Mike Van Eyes from The Revel Room’s famous Duelling Pianos Night.

The entire night went off without a hitch and a great time was had by all. Again, we wish to thank all our amazing guests for coming out. It is always such a great pleasure for us to see our dresses making girls feel stunning at any size. This party was a small gesture of our appreciation for everyone who’s supported us all these years and we’re excited to share so much positivity & pretty dresses for many more years to come!

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We make our dresses for you, so it makes perfect sense to reach out to youwhen representing our line. Our dresses are as unique as your own personal style and we love to see how our Cherry Velvet girls style their dresses. Enter Shelly! Our regular readers will recognise her as a friend of Diane (our designer), whose fun and whimsical fashion sense makes her a perfect choice for this. A self-proclaimed, “sexy, fat chick” with a penchant for dresses, she’s an avid Cherry Velvet aficionado.

With her approachable smile, she’s a beacon of Retro-inspired style and has remarked that Cherry Velvet are her favourite dresses. We were so pleased to hear that she often gets stopped on the sidewalk when she’s wearing them!

On top of that, we knew Shelly has amassed an envy-inducing collection of darling shoes (including our favourite shoe brand, John Fluevog) –

and jewelry…

So we asked her to choose a few dresses to style along with her pretty things, as well as model for us – to show off her unique, CV-style. As always, we were delighted by Shelly’s cheerful and confident personality. She tells it like it is and exemplifies the body positive, self-assured attitude that pairs perfectly with our dresses.

We knew the Olivia Dress was the perfect choice for her when we heard her explaining her style philosophy, “fashion is a feeling.” Fittingly, as soon as she donned the delicate Violet Ribbon print, she exclaimed, “it feels like something out of 1950’s Paris!”

She went on to explain that she enjoys the juxtaposition of “simple with fancy.” She suggests pairing a denim jacket with our dresses or jazzing up a more subdued print with statement shoes.

Our dresses look absolutely fabulous with belts and this thick patent leather one is a lovely complement to our subtle take on the pinstripe. It really makes those fierce heels pop!

She definitely had a blast trying out our brightest Doris Dress yet, The Pixel Party. It was hard to contain her enthusiasm! As soon as she saw it when she was picking her choices, she had to show it to her husband.

“He’s a bit of a geek and this dress just screams ‘Comic Con’! He loves the pixelated print.”

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We wanted to keep the 2nd to last blog of the year light & cheery, so what better way to do that than with a #flashbackfriday!

Being located in East Vancouver, we’re lucky to be surrounded by so many local businesses with amazing history and connection to our community. One such business has been serving the neighborhood since 1957.

May we (re)introduce you to a local favourite diner on East Hastings Street, Save-On-Meats.

Did you know that as of 2016, the building itself is 125 years old? We love that Vancouver has so many historical buildings!

Originally a quaint butcher shop with a small sandwich counter in the back, it quickly became legendary for its amazing burgers and excellent prices, leading to its expansion as a full diner. (While still maintaining the busy butcher side!)

While the original owner decided to close up shop in 2009, operations were picked up by a local entrepreneur in 2011 and Mark Brand has continued to run Save-On-Meats with the same standards and commitment to the community that it has become well known for.

Besides its wonderful history with Vancouver, Save-On-Meats boasts one of the most adorably legit retro diner interiors in the whole city. When it reopened 5 years ago, we knew it would be the perfect spot for our Spring 2013 Catalogue photoshoot.

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 4 years to date since we shot this. January 9th, 2013 to be exact! We had an amazing cast of models with the likes of Ruby Roxx, Elly Mayday, Miss Lucky Dee…and despite the threat of delicious all beef patties, we even cajoled our gorgeous Veggie pattern maker at the time, Genesis, into striking a pose or two. We were also lucky to have an incredible Glam Squad, to transform these lovely ladies into Pin-up perfection.

Which, of course, was entirely necessary, when we had the famous Shimona Henry of Pin-Up Perfection Photography at the helm, ensuring maximum pout & poise. We absolutely love her style!

Check out a a few pics below:

We hope you enjoyed this little blast from the past!
(And who knows…maybe we need to drop in for a burger & shake again in the New Year…)

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Recently a follower on Facebook noticed that we used Photoshop to edit an image. The photo was one of our Plus Size models, Veronica Belle and this person was quite upset. We believe it was because they thought we had altered the size of our model, which we hadn’t done at all. What we had done was Photoshop a new fabric on top of an existing photo. In the end, we thought this feedback was an excellent opportunity to explain why and how we use Photoshop.

There are three main reasons we use Photoshop. First of all, our main goal as a company is to create and sell beautiful dresses. When we show an image of a model, it’s not our goal to alter the size of the model; but we do clean up ‘imperfections’ so as not to detract attention from the dresses. If a model had a very unsightly blemish on her cheek while wearing one of our dresses, would you notice the blemish or the dress? So, yes, we make minor cosmetic edits, to ensure nothing distracts from our dress. In addition, we often remove a few wrinkles in the dress, or a stray piece of hair that’s lying in the wrong place. We also correct the colour to match the true colour of the fabric or the print as best as we can, as well as fix the lighting, if necessary. Those are the kind of things that we Photoshop on models.

Another reason is timing & efficiency. When we get a brand-new dress in stock, we’re so excited to show it to you that we don’t always have time to wait for a photoshoot. Because we are constantly introducing new dresses and/or new prints, often a dress might arrive after we’ve just held a photoshoot. Instead of waiting until we have enough dresses to warrant another photoshoot (and the resulting the cost of hiring models, a make up artist, and a photographer) sometimes it just makes sense for us to Photoshop the new print or fabric on to an existing image.

It’s not our intention to misrepresent and we don’t feel like we do. We are just trying to release the newest dresses we have in stock in a timely manner.

We have one more reason to Photoshop, and this one is the most creative. We use the magic of Photoshop to create all the amazing effects that we share with you in our images. We want to tell a story with our brand and show off why our dresses are so fun to wear!

We hope this explains what we do and how we use Photoshop. We embrace the size of our models and as a company that promotes size inclusivity, we would NEVER misrepresent how our dresses fit on all shapes and sizes.

XOX Cherry Velvet

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As we get ready to switch over to a new “leaf” (Fall’s coming & we’re releasing our Autumn Collection soon!), we thought it would be a great opportunity to update our “About” section and include a few words about each person that makes up our Cherry Velvet Team. Read on and learn more about Team CV!

Without further ado…

Logan Rudum

Logan has been with us since 2013! His first and foremost role here is Media Director, where he spends his days beautifying our website, thinking up fun ideas for photoshoots (then shooting them!) and managing our social media channels. He loves having the opportunity to spread positivity through Cherry Velvet.

And thankfully for us ladies in the office, his active lifestyle as an obstacle race/marathon addict also has its benefits; he’s the only one strong enough to deftly change the water cooler jugs and plotter paper!

Tatyana Bardas

Our lovely patternmaker, Tatyana, hails from Lviv, a city in Western Ukraine. After she finished her degree in Fashion Design, she moved to Canada and has been working with us for just over a year! She’s the talent behind the plotter so to speak, as she works closely with our designer, Diane, to create the beautiful patterns our dresses are cut from.

Despite her size, Tracy comes in like a wrecking ball of sunshine. Always whistling while she works, she’s Cherry Velvet’s Jill of All Trades. As someone with a passion for customer service, she’s the smiling face who often fields our private showroom appointments, the cheery voice who responds to customer inquiries and is photography assistant to Logan during photoshoots. She also loves doing the blogging! (holla!)

When she’s not assisting Team CV, she’s delighting them with her Disney-themed outfits and brightly coloured hair.

Dawn Chavda

Our newest member to the team, Dawn is our diligent Shipper/Receiver who also responds to order/exchange related inquiries and makes sure our dresses get safely to their happy new owners. Having previously spent most of her professional life shipping auto parts, Dawn is so pleased to be surrounded by so many gorgeous dresses all the time and NOT auto parts. She also enjoys being our model once in awhile!

An English major and self proclaimed “geek”, one of her favourite things about working here is chatting with all our adorable customers. Just don’t spell her name, “Don”!

That’s the team! We hope you enjoyed putting some faces on the names you might see once in awhile.